Best Laid Plans
by KRDAMD5
Summary: I love the holidays. While hubby was out playing with the kids, I got to sit and do some writing. This is just a short little peice about 2 people whose plans didn't always pan out.
1. Chapter 1

**Best Laid Plans**

Wished I owned them but I don't. But I do get to enjoy their company when I'm of a mind to.

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"Mama?" The tiny, yet tall little boy tugged at the hand of his mother as they stood beside his father's grave. "Will Papa ever come back?"

"No, Sweetheart." His mother wiped away a tear as she shook her head. "Papa's gone and he won't be coming back."

"Did he want to go away and leave us?" His mama had told him that his father had gone to heaven but he was still having trouble figuring out why? And why they had placed his body in the large oak box and put it underground.

The brunette woman looked down at her lanky child with a tender yet sad smile and gripped his hand a little tighter. "No, son, he didn't want to leave us. He didn't plan on going anywhere. But sometimes best laid plans don't work out."

The little boy took in his mother's words silently for a moment. He knew his mother had loved his papa, she had said so many times, even when his Papa had left for long stretches of time without word. His mother had always kept a lamp sitting on a table in the front window of their small house so that when he came home, no matter how late the hour or dark the sky, he would be able to find his way home to her. But now, his Papa would never come home.

"Mama?" He looked back up at her and then at the darkening sky. "When we get home, will you light the lamp again in the front window even though Papa's gone?"

The woman knelt down and scooped her son into her arms and finally turned away from the grave. It was getting late, his question reminded her, and she needed to go home. "Yes, son." She answered just before they left the cemetery and the man she loved behind. "I will light the lamp."

"When I grow up, I want to be just like my Papa." The boy declared as his mother carried him back towards their small home. "Then you can light the lamp for me."

"I hope not." The woman shuddered at the thought. "I hope you plan for any other future besides being a lawman."

Several years later, the little boy was not so little any longer as he once again stood next to a grave, this time his mother's. She had done her best for him after his father had died and somehow had always managed to keep a roof over their head and food on their table. But the roof was not theirs and the food was now gone. And the boy was now alone.

Neighbors to the north, friends of his parents' had taken him in and tried hard to treat him no differently than they did their own boys but he knew he was different. He was not yet old enough to be in charge of his own fate, but that time was coming and he planned on escaping from these people and this part of the country as soon as he could.

Of course how best to accomplish that was still in question.

"What'cha doing?" His guardian's youngest son stood and watched as the young man carefully shaved what little peach fuzz there was on his face a few weeks later.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" He grumbled. "I'm shaving."

"Why?" The tot demanded.

The young man turned and looked at the boy angrily. "Because that's what men do before going out." He answered in irritation. "We shave and get cleaned up."

"You goin' to the barn dance?" The boy was just full of questions and the young man was sorely tired of them. In truth, he was sorely tired of the boy himself. Or maybe, he reflected as he wiped the last of the lather off his face and grabbed his string tie, maybe he was just tired of his present life.

Working on a ranch, while secure and safe, for the most part, was also boring and this young man yearned for excitement and adventure. He was good at ranching but he was good at other things as well, like drawing a gun. Although he'd never drawn it against another person and had no desire to do it, he did enjoy the times he'd take the old holster and revolver, he managed to buy, out into the back woods and practice. He was beginning to get pretty good at it and many times he thought seriously about keeping his childish promise of being like his papa.

But he didn't want to do that just yet. He had some living he wanted to do first, some traveling and maybe even some whoring. He hadn't yet been with a girl, like that anyway, but he knew from the looks he got and the many times girls flirted with him, that he could probably have any girl he wanted anyway he wanted her.

But tempting as the thought was, he was holding out for a while. He wasn't ready to settle down or get serious about any girl, though there were a few, like Cara, that definitely made that decision hard to stick by. But he knew anything more than the occasional kiss, or barn dance, like tonight's shindig, would mean his having to settle for the staid life of a rancher or farmer with her and he wanted none of that. Uh huh. Not him. He had better plans for his life than that.

Several years later, the still young man, had aged precipitously in the few years since he'd pulled up stakes and left the ranch of his neighbors. He'd not only grown in body and height, but also in maturity and even a certain amount of wisdom. As he'd planned, he'd done his traveling and cowboying and drinking and even a certain amount of whoring.

There'd been girls aplenty in most places he'd gone to and though he tried to remain celibate, it had proved to be a little too difficult and one night, while out on the town with a friend of his, he'd succumbed to the kisses of a brown eyed blonde who promised him all the delights a man could want. And she'd followed through on them too. After that, he never shied away from indulging himself when he was in town and had the money. But though he gave them his money and his body, he never gave them his heart. That was one thing he held in reserve.

Despite the many adventures, or mis-adventures the young man had gone on so far, he wasn't ready to settle down. He still had more he wanted to do. When he'd been kidnapped by bank robbers, he'd over heard them talking about a war that was coming and knew as he listened, he wanted to be a part of that. So when the older man, mercifully let him go without, killing him, he set off to see about doing just that.

Now, as he lay on a hospital cot, his leg incased in bandages as well another wide one around his middle, he thought about those plans. Best laid plans, his mother had said many years prior. Well, he'd wanted adventure and he'd wanted excitement and the opportunity to be a hero and he'd gotten all that in spades. Question was, what did he want now?

Months later when he was able to walk, without having to hold onto a crutch or a cane, he knew what he wanted to do. It was an old plan but the one that felt right and was right for him. He knew his mother's wishes in the matter, but she was gone and he had no other family to voice any objections.

Once he was mustered out of the army, he traded his uniform for a piece of tin. Though the tin was smaller, it was no less conspicuous and made him an even bigger target then he was in a Union uniform in a sea of rebels. He accepted that. It wasn't going to be easy, this new life he was choosing, but it was the one he planned on and the one he felt was meant for him.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

**2**

"Mama?" The little girl looked seriously up at her mother. "Tell me about Father." She'd been over at her friend Claire's house and saw the way Claire's father had been around his family. It made her wonder about her own.

"What do you want to know about him?" The red haired woman turned and looked at the miniature version of herself when she was young and before life had changed her.

"Was he a good man?" The child asked earnestly. "Did he love us?"

The woman nodded with a sigh. "He was as good as he could be, I guess." Whatever problems she had with her absent husband, she firmly resolved to keep it between them. Her daughter didn't need to know such things. "As for whether he loved us, well, I'm sure he did as much as he could."

"Will I ever meet anyone like my father?" The child asked.

The woman laughed without humor as she looked down at her beautiful 7 year old. "I hope not, sweetheart. I think you deserve much more."

"Was my father a bad man?" The child asked, noticing but not understanding the look that crossed her mother's careworn features.

The woman paused, wondering exactly how to answer that question. Finally, she sat down in a rickety chair in her sparse kitchen, deciding the dishes could wait a while longer, while she tended to her child. "Come here, honey. Sit on my lap for a minute and I'll see if I can explain this."

Obediently, the little girl climbed onto her mother's frail lap and laid her head on her thin shawl covered shoulder.

Cradling her child close, the woman gently kissed her brow, giving herself time to form the right words needed to answer her daughter's question.

"Your father wasn't… isn't a bad man, honey. He's just a man that didn't quite know how to be a father or a husband. He tried, I think. He stuck around for a while, but he just didn't have it in him to be what you or even I needed. He had plans to do better for us, but plans sometimes get sidetracked. Best laid plans don't always work."

"Is that why he left before I could know him?" The child asked.

"That's part of it. But I think he was also a little scared." The woman gently rocked her child in her arms as she thought of the tall man that she still loved despite his abandonment of her and his baby.

The child pulled back and looked up disbelieving at her mother. "But he's a grownup. Grownups don't get scared, do they?"

Her mother smiled at her. "Oh, sweetheart, we get more scared about things sometimes than little ones like you do. But we learn, usually, how to handle those fears and how to get past them."

"Did my father learn?"

"I don't know, sweetheart. I hope so." Came the reply.

The child didn't understand all her mother had told her but with a reassuring hug she was satisfied that she had nothing to fear or worry about and anything that came her way later that might be scary would dealt with by the seemingly formidable woman who held her so tightly.

Five years later, the now twelve year old girl stood silently in the back of a gambling parlor and watched the goings on. She saw several girls, some not much older than her, taking men by the hand and leading them upstairs. Some remained downstairs and served drinks or simply sat beside other men and smiled and even occasionally kissed them.

They all looked to be having fun, but she knew how the girls looked at the end of the day when the place was closed and they were trudging up to their rooms. They didn't look at all like they'd had fun then.

"What on earth are you doing child?" The older woman came out of her office to find the little girl silently standing in a corner watching the people in the parlor. "I thought I told you to scoot upstairs to your room."

The child looked up at her guardian with a shrug. "You did but it's boring up there. I'd much rather stay down here."

Inwardly, the woman groaned. She knew having that girl there was a bad idea but she'd never been able to turn down a charming man and the child's father was a charming man indeed. When he'd asked her to take in his suddenly orphaned daughter, she'd reluctantly agreed but she expected that he himself would bring the child and perhaps stay a while.

That was the plan, at least. But plans don't always work. Instead of the tall man with blue eyes, a neighbor of the child's now deceased mother had brought her and left her at the front door, unwilling to enter in to such a den of iniquity, even though she had no real problem with leaving a ten year old little girl there.

Shaking her head at it all, the short but pleasingly plump woman made a decision. If the child was going to live there, she was going to learn about the life it afforded and demanded. Starched petticoats and clean linen handkerchiefs would be just the tip of the lessons she would teach this girl.

"Well, I guess it's time." The woman sighed. "Come on, child. I think it's about time you began to learn something about this place."

Three years later, the now stunning fifteen year old sat in another gambling palace behind a table with a deck of cards and three eager men in front of her. She'd played ten hands of poker so far this night and had won every one of them. But the men who surrounded her didn't seem to care one bit as long as she was the one dealing. The losses they incurred at her hands were considered nothing more than payment for the privilege of sitting with her for a while and perhaps the chance of something more upstairs later.

But this girl had no such intentions. She'd never taken a man upstairs and she didn't plan to. Her employer and much loved friend had promised her that it wasn't a part of her employment and the girl was quite happy with that arrangement. She had no intentions of taking any man to her bed until she was certain he was the right man, the man she loved and the one that loved her.

She'd done a lot of growing up in the five years since her mother died and she'd learned a lot of things about the seamier side of life. She'd seen girls willingly allowing themselves to be used and abused for a dollar simply because that dollar was the difference between starving or surviving for one more day.

She didn't plan on letting that happen to her, not this girl. But as her mother had said once, best laid plans don't often work.

"Hey, Darlin'."

The now 17 year old girl looked up into the dark eyes of her lover and smiled when he approached her at the bar. "What are you doing here? I thought you were at work?"

"Well…" He hesitated. He had been fairly successful at lying to her for some time now about holding down a job. But it was time to tell her the truth, or at least a part of it and he knew when he did, she'd be upset. But there was no choice in it. He needed her compliance in order to get out of the jam he'd gotten himself into and unless he told her the most of it and somehow convinced her that it was their only option, he was going to be in deep, deep trouble.

"Can we talk somewhere private." He asked, looking furtively around them.

She noticed his demeanor and something she hadn't seen before in him, didn't expect in him. Fear. "Let's go in the boss's office." She took him by the arm. "Jake?" She looked over at the bartender. "Mind if we use Hub's office for a couple of minutes?"

"Fine by me." Jake shrugged. "But if it's more than that, Hub's gonna want him to pay."

"It's nothing like that." She shook her head in disgust. Though she and the tall man beside her had now been lovers for over a year, she hadn't been with any other man and she had no plans to. She'd found her true love, she thought. The upstairs business that the other girls engaged in was not for her. But that was before they entered the office and in a few minutes, her carefully constructed plans of a future with this man were blown away.

Best laid plans, she ruefully thought later that night as she laid with a man other than him.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

**3 – The end all be all**

**AN: Thank you everyone for the nice reviews. You are much too kind and I do appreciate it. And a special thank you to Mommoo. You are terrifically sweet and obviously very intelligent as you love Matt and Kitty too.**

The young man stood on the boardwalk in front of the jail for a few minutes sizing up the town he was now in charge of. Life had taken him on some strange twists and turns but he'd finally found his place in the world. And it was here in this muddy little cow town called Dodge City.

Oh there were times he didn't think he'd make it and times he didn't want to make it. There were times when he was with her that he was content with his life as it was. But as he looked back on it now, he realized he wasn't supposed to be with her. She was pretty and all with that long blonde hair and big blue eyes. And she was sweet and smart and more than willing to be with him but there was something missing. A connection gone that should be there in order for it to work between them.

That same missing connection had driven a wedge between him and every other girl he'd had any involvement with. Well, that and the fact that he told them up front that he wouldn't marry them. When he'd told her that, it didn't seem to daunt her at first and it'd made his attraction for her stronger. But, like all the others, she eventually began to demand more of his time and his attention than his job allowed. The last night he'd seen her, was the night she'd demanded that he take off his badge and marry her.

He'd tried to reason with her, patiently explaining yet again he reasons for not marrying or having a family but she refused to listen.

"We made plans!" She declared. "You were going to work this job of yours long enough to get us a stake and then we were going to get married. Why are you backing out of it now?"

"I'm not." He shook his head, trying hard to control his temper. "And I never promised to marry you. I told you from the beginning that I would never marry. I thought you understood that."

"What I understand is that you led me to believe that we would be together." She barked at him with a glare.

"And we have been." He glared back. "But this is as far as I'm willing to go. I can't marry you. Please, please understand that."

But she hadn't understood and when they parted that evening, it was for good. He didn't regret his honesty; he made it a point to be honest in all of his dealings. And he didn't regret his decision not to marry her. He didn't think he had it in him to be a husband and father. But he did regret the hurt he saw in her eyes when she walked away from him. He'd never wanted to hurt her.

But that was over now and any plans he now held for the future, did not include her or any other woman. From this day forward, he would keep his dealings with all women on a strictly business basis. It was safer that way.

Just then, his stomach loudly grumbled. "Speaking of plans." He mused softly to himself. "I think I have plans for breakfast."

As he crossed the muddy street towards the café, the stage rumbled by. He gave it scant attention. Stages came through the ever bustling town two or three times a day and each time it belched out gamblers and cowboys and ladies of the night as well as farmers and any other number of people trying to get from one place to another. Unless he was looking for someone in particular, he seldom paid the stage any notice.

This morning his only plans involved a big breakfast at the café, maybe some checkers with the town doctor and a few circuits around town with his assistant. There was nothing and no one on that stage that he had any interest in or planned to pay attention to.

Until he saw the young red head get off the stage, accept a small valise from the driver and slog her way down to the café.

The young woman offered a brief smile to the driver as he handed down her bag and gave directions to the café. But that smile soon took a downward turn as she looked around at the bogged down streets and drab gray buildings of Dodge City. She'd been in worse towns but that didn't make her like this one any better.

Since she'd taken off on her own two years previous, she'd seen a lot of worse, worse towns, worse people and worse attitudes toward women, her kind of woman in particular. But she'd kept her head up and constantly looked forward and not back. She really had nothing behind her to look back for. The only man she'd ever thought she loved had used her and, she found out later, cheated on her while he had her entertaining men to absolve him of his gambling debts.

She was glad she was away from that situation. Of course, over the last two years she'd been in other situations like it and even worse. But at least those times her heart wasn't involved. The things she'd had to do to survive had been difficult and sometimes the things she'd experienced had been downright cruel. But she hadn't had her heart broken again during those times. Her heart was something she was not willing to extend any longer to anyone. Especially not a man.

She didn't need a man. She didn't need anyone or anything that would bring her that kind of grief again. What she needed was breakfast and another stage ticket to anyplace but here.

The driver had said there would be a couple of hours delay before the next stage would leave so taking another glance around her, she picked her way through the muck and mire to the building the driver had pointed out and went inside. Looking into her reticule, she saw she had about 40 dollars left. Not enough to get her much further but at least it would get her out of this town. As the waiter delivered her toast, egg and coffee, she made plans to eat breakfast and then get back on the stage and leave.

Until she glanced up from her meager breakfast and saw a tall man wearing a big Stetson sitting at a table across from her.

The young lawman tried hard not to look directly at the stunning girl who was sitting mere feet away from him. But it was mighty hard. He'd never seen a girl with hair quite that color or eyes that blue or porcelain skin like hers. But there was more besides beauty to her and it held his attention more so than the huge breakfast he'd ordered. This girl had something undefinable that trapped him before he knew it and though he made no moves towards her, he resolved somehow, someway, he would get to know her. He planned on that for sure.

The young woman was careful not to stare at the big man but it was an impossible task to keep from looking entirely. He was not only the biggest man she'd ever seen but also the best looking. With dark curls framing his head and beautiful blue eyes and just a hint of dimples when he briefly smiled up at the waiter, her heart practically leapt for joy at the sight of him.

Why he caught her attention, aside from his obvious physical attributes, she wasn't sure. But she knew, deep down, in a place that knew no logic, that there was something about that man unlike any other she'd ever known. And since her mother had died, she had known a lot of men. But this one… this was one different.

Finishing up her breakfast, the young woman paid for her meal, gripped her travel worn bag and hastily left the café. As she walked away, she knew her previous plans had now changed. She now planned on finding a place to stay and a job to sustain her while she found out more about the tall dark haired man that drew her like a moth to a flame.

Best laid plans.

A year later, the graying physician stood at the bar of the Long Branch and glanced fondly at the two people sitting at a back table talking. They were making plans to go fishing on her next day off. He didn't know if those plans would fall through as other plans had, or if they'd succeed this time. But he was fairly certain in the long run it wouldn't matter.

Those two, whether they acknowledged it yet or not, were head over heels for each other. He had a pretty good idea that they wouldn't be saying their 'I do's' anytime soon and he knew that more times than not, any plans they made would probably be set aside when that young man's badge called.

But he wasn't concerned so much with the time it took, as long as it happened. Because, he had plans to walk a certain young lady down the aisle and give her away to a certain young man.

End


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